The science of women’s basketball recruiting has finally caught up with the iPad and iPhone, thanks to a new app called SportsBoard.

This new mobile solution allows coaches to put down the old pen-and-paper method and go straight to a digitally enhanced way of tracking athletes throughout the AAU and high school basketball season.

“This is so convenient, why not use it?” said Shereka Wright, recruiting coordinator for the University of Alabama. “I’m always about saving time, working efficiently and working smarter, and that’s why I encourage coaches to use SportsBoard.”

This spring, when longtime Texas Tech head coach Kristi Curry was hired to take over the Alabama women’s program, the staff was presented with the challenge of recruiting in new areas of the country where they were less familiar with prospects. To help ease the transition, Wright began searching for tools that would help the staff become more organized and save time. She first discovered the SportsBoard app while searching on iTunes and called the company directly to get a product demo.

“I was looking for something on an iPad where I can evaluate prospects without having to write in the book, because that can get messy at times.” said Wright. “With Sportsboard, I can click on a prospect and rate her by categories and then take notes for each game I watch. If you don’t have time to type, you can even speak your notes into Sportsboard while you’re watching. So it saves time and it helps me become more organized.”

SportsBoard, which was created by coaches for coaches, has a comprehensive layout that is tailored to track every possible detail about a recruit with ease. The app has an extensive player rating system that allows coaches to grade prospects on categories such as shooting, ball handling and defense, with the ability to add custom categories. The note-taking feature allows players to be tracked over multiple games and tournaments, and there is even a feature to tally in-game statistics.

“Once back at the computer, all the information can be loaded to our server and printed off. It could save me three to four hours because I don’t have to type it all up,” says Wright, who has been part of Curry’s staff for seven seasons. “Now, when we have our recruiting meetings, it’s much easier to track a prospect throughout the summer.”

Perhaps the best feature of SportsBoard is the pre-loaded data, such as rosters and tournament schedules. SportsBoard partnered with the All Star Girls Report, which puts the book information at the fingertips of coaches during their major events such as the Fila 64 in Las Vegas and the upcoming Fall Finish in Los Angeles.

“I think coaches really liked it,” said ASGR scouting coordinator Bret McCormick. “Once they learn how easy it is, I believe most of the major college programs will get on board, because it’s technology that can make their lives much easier.”

North Carolina’s Hall of Fame Coach Sylvia Hatchell was one of the first women’s basketball coaches to use SportsBoard.

"I have never been a technology person, but the business side of me knows that this is the wave of the future," says Hatchell, a three-time national coach of the year who is being inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame next month. "I am never too old to learn, and wise enough to know that we have to keep up with the latest technology."

The SportsBoard app is available on iTunes for $14.99 with additional features such as data syncing and pre-loaded tournament rosters available for subscription (starting at $30 a month), and is also available for 11 other sports such as football, baseball, lacrosse and soccer.